Rocacorba Daily

Monday July 14, 2014

by Matt de Neef - July 14, 2014

In this morning’s edition of the Rocacorba Daily news digest: Tony Martin wins stage 9 of the Tour de France as Tony Gallopin rides into yellow; Marianne Vos wins the 2014 Giro Rosa as Dr Emma Pooley wins her third stage; Peter Kennaugh leads from start to finish to win the Tour of Austria; Sergiy Lagkuti wins stage 8 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake, Ilya Davidenok still leads overall; Menchov given two year ban, disqualified from three Tours de France; Stijn Vandenbergh extends contract with Omega Pharma-QuickStep; Andy Schleck - "I don't want to retire. Not like this"; Bike thieves hit RusVelo and Gourmetfein Wels; Succesful surgery for Matthias Frank and Darwin Atapuma; Luca Paolini warned for using his phone mid-race.

Tony Martin wins stage 9 of the Tour de France as Tony Gallopin rides into yellow

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) has won a hilly stage 9 of the Tour de France in the Vosges mountains after attacking from a two-man breakaway on the biggest climb of the day. Martin had been leading the race with Cannondale’s Alessandro De Marchi before setting off alone on the first category climb to Le Markstein 59km from the finish, and holding off a chase group to take his first road stage win at the Tour de France.

Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol) finished in the chase group more than five minutes ahead of the peloton, taking the yellow jersey off the shoulders of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) in the process.

Tony Martin and Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale) got clear of the peloton in the opening 20km of the race as a chase group of roughly 25 riders came together behind them. The pair extended their advantage as the stage wore on, before Martin attacked with about 59km to go on the longest climb of the day.

He sumitted the climb first and from there victory was all but assured — the chase group wasn’t close enough to shut down the gap on the flat run to the line, and the peloton was well behind, taking it easy.

In the end Martin crossed the line 2:45 ahead of the chase group which was led home by Cancellara in second place and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) in third. A rather relaxed-looking peloton finished the stage 7:46 behind Martin and 5:01 behind the chase group, giving Tony Gallopin a lead of 1:34 going into Bastille Day.

Vincenzo Nibali is now in second place while Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) slots into third after finishing in the same escape group as Gallopin.

Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) has capped off a dominant Giro Rosa for her Rabo-Liv team, winning her third edition of the race overall after Dr Emma Pooley (Lotto-Belisol) won the final stage; her third of the race.

Going into the final stage Vos led the GC ahead of her teammates Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Anna van der Breggen with her nearest challenger being last year’s winner, Mara Abbott (UnitedHealthcare), 1:39 in arrears. The final stage finished with the tough climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo, made famous by the Giro di Lombardia, and it was a question of whether Vos would be able to hold on to her lead.

On the approach to and lower slopes of the final climb, the peloton started thinning out until only the pure climbers and the GC contenders were left. Emma Pooley attacked on the final climb, opening up a small gap by the time there was 5km left to race. She would go on to win the stage by 25 seconds, her third mountain-top victory of the race.

Pooley was followed over the line by Ferrand-Prevot and Vos at 25 seconds with van der Breggen fourth. Mara Abbott finished fifth. The result ensures a 1-2-3 on the GC for Rabo-Liv, plus the points classification (Vos, but top four for Rabo-Liv) and six stage victories (four for Vos and two for Annemiek van Vleuten). Emma Pooley, who took nine months off last year to finish her PhD in geotechnical engineering, took the QOM classification in addition to her three stage wins.

Sunday 13th July 2014

Peter Kennaugh leads from start to finish to win the Tour of Austria

Peter Kennaugh (Sky) sealed overall victory in the 2014 Tour of Austria yesterday after finishing safely in the bunch as the sprinters had their day on the final stage into Vienna. Marco Haller (Katusha) won the final, rain-drenched stage, ahead of Jacopo Guarnieri (Astana) and Raymond Kreder (Garmin-Sharp).

Stage 8 of the Tour of Austria concluded with 10 laps of a circuit around the streets of Vienna after a group of five riders slipped up the road on the run into the capital, managing to open up a maximum advantage of two minutes. The day was always likely to come down to a bunch sprint and the gap to the breakaway was down to one minute as the peloton reached Vienna.

With the weather worsening, the race organisers declared that the GC times would be taken with one lap to go, leaving the sprint trains to battle it out over the final circuit. Peter Kennaugh rolled home safely in the pack to ensure he wrapped up the title while Haller sprinted to the win in his home race.

Kennaugh took the overall lead way back on stage 1 with a solo victory to the mountain-top finish at Sonntagberg. He was able to defend his lead throughout the race, finishing more than a minute clear of Javier Moreno (Movistar) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale).

The breakaway succeeded again on stage eight of the Tour of Qinghai Lake, as stage winner Sergiy Lagkuti (Kolss) surprised even himself after winning out of a group of seven that escaped 92km into the 226km stage.

Image: 7Cycling

Despite having been sick the last four days, Lagkuti reported feeling much better as he covered the move for the Kolss team following the day’s major beyond category climb early in the stage. With no plans for a stage win, the team was only looking to ride for the team classification, but was pleasantly surprised when it became clear the breakaway would make it to the line.

The group started to break up in the last 2km, as Lagkuti finished alone off the front, followed by Volodymyr Kogut (Amore & Vita – Selle SMP) with Samuele Conti (Neri Sotolli) finishing third.

Astana Continental’s Ilya Davidenok finished in the field to defend his three jerseys as the top Asian rider, sprint, and GC leader.

Tony Martin: “The last few minutes in particular were incredible”

Using the same power and concentration which has earned him three world time trial titles, Tony Martin won stage nine of the Tour of France two minutes 45 seconds ahead of the chase group led home by Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing.

“This really comes close to my first success in the worlds,” he said afterwards, savouring the success and the emotions it brought. “It was amazing. It is really special to win a road race, not just a time trial. And especially when you can celebrate it in the last few kilometres when you know you have it. The last few minutes in particular were incredible.”

Martin’s Omega Pharma-Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere likened the victory to the top cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx. He’s a little biased, of course, being the boss of Martin, but there certainly was a parallel to be made.

Richie Porte ready for the first big mountain stage

Stage 8 was the first taste of what we can expect in the high mountains of the Tour de France, but it’s stage 10 tomorrow where the cream will rise to the top. Is Richie Porte ready?

Outside the team bus in Mulhose Dave Brailsford told journalists that Richie Porte is ready:

“He has quite a lot of experience of what it takes to win a GC without having done it. He has quite a lot of learning from that.

“What we have experienced in the last few years is Chris riding with Bradley and learning a lot, then putting that to use himself. Then Richie has ridden for Froomey, and particularly last year, he rode ever so well for him…and you learn a lot from that.

The day after Chris Froome went home because of a fractured wrist, Porte said:

“I’ve got an opportunity to step up and I’m really going to do that now,”

“It doesn’t change a whole lot for me. I’m in good form. Now I’ll ride for myself and not somebody else. We’ll see what happens.”

Menchov given two year ban, disqualified from three Tours de France

by Shane Stokes

Over a year after his then-Katusha team announced that Denis Menchov was walking away from the sport, citing a knee injury as the reason, it has emerged that the Russian rider has been suspended for biological passport violations.

In a list of doping sanctions displayed on its website, Menchov is listed as having been given a two year ban running until April 9 2015. In addition to that, it states that he has been disqualified from the Tour de France in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

The UCI has confirmed the news of Menchov’s sanction in a brief statement released to CyclingTips. It reads as follows:

“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) confirms having imposed a 2-year ban on Russian rider Denis Menchov as a result of his anti-doping rules violation based on his Athlete Biological Passport. The rider is declared ineligible until 9 April 2015 and is disqualified from the Tour de France 2009, 2010 and 2012. No further communication will be made on this case.”

Menchov meanwhile has said he won’t appeal the ban:

“I’m not going to appeal the sanction, I don’t want to waste time doing it, nor do I want to spend any energy on it,” Menchov said, according to Russian website R-Sport.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips. Click here for a good piece at The Inner Ring about what this all means for the UCI’s procedures when it comes to announcing rider bans.

Stijn Vandenbergh extends contract with Omega Pharma-QuickStep

Stijn Vandenbergh has extended his contract with Omega Pharma-QuickStep Cycling Team and will now ride with the Belgian setup for 2015 and 2016.

Vandenbergh finished in the top five at Ronde van Vlaanderen and E3 Harelbeke this year, and was second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2013.

“I’m happy,” Vandenbergh said. ‘It’s great news for me and it’s best for me to stay with this team. As a Belgian, I’m proud to be part of a Belgian based team with an international dimension. On this team I have come to know everybody well, from the riders to the staff. It is a team where I can feel the confidence around me.”

Text adapted from an Omega Pharma-QuickStep press release.

Andy Schleck: “I don’t want to retire. Not like this”

When Andy Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) crashed out of the Tour de France early in week one and had to have surgery on his knee, there were some suggestions this latest setback might spell the end for the 2010 Tour de France winner. But now Schleck has told Cyclingnews he is determined to rebuild his career. Again.

“In the morning after the crash I went on the rollers and I couldn’t push more than 80 watts. The doctor came and he asked me if I could push more but I couldn’t because it was so painful. I got on the bus and we made the call to not start,” he said.

“It goes without saying that the morning I pulled out of the race was the worst moment I’ve ever had in cycling. To give up in the Tour de France like that was crushing. It was heartbreaking. I was on the bus with tears in my eyes because I knew that I couldn’t ride my bike anymore,” an emotional Schleck said.

Scans the day after his injury revealed the full extent of Schleck’s knee injury: a rupture of both the collateral and cruciate ligaments plus a tear in the meniscus and bruising. Schleck had surgery immediately but faces a long road back to full fitness.

“You know though, I thought for a moment that it might all be over but I don’t want to give up like this. I crashed out of the Tour and that’s not how I want people to remember me. So as soon as I can start again I will ride.

“I love to ride my bike so I’ll start out small and then I can think about racing but it’s important not to rush. The doctors say ‘please Andy, be careful and don’t put pressure on your knee’ and they repeat it every day.”

Bike thieves hit RusVelo and Gourmetfein Wels

Bikes thieves have hit both the RusVelo ProContinental and Gourmetfein Wels Continental teams in the past few days with thieves stealing hundreds of thousands of euros worth of equipment.

The RusVelo service corse in Italy was broken into on Thursday morning with two men caught on video breaking in through the roof.

“We are the fifth team this year which falls victim of an incident like that in the region of Lombardy only,” said RusVelo team manager Renat Khamidulin. “There is no doubt that shortly the stolen Colnago bikes will pop up in online stores; it’s just the chain of events that has repeated itself a number of times. All we can do is to appeal to potential buyers – don’t be lured into purchasing these bikes!”

The Gourmetfein bikes, meanwhile, were taken during the Tour of Austria. All 15 of the team’s bikes were stolen from the hotel before team co-ordinator Roberto Marcuzzo put the call out to other teams, asking for help.

“Within 16 minutes we had 30 bikes.The support of the international and national teams was unbelievable,” he said. “I have been in cycling a long time, but have never seen such a great and engaged show of support.”

Successful surgery for Matthias Frank and Darwin Atapuma

Friday’s seventh stage 7 of the Tour de France saw two riders abandon the race with a broken femur: Darwin Atampuma (BMC) and Mathias Frank (IAM). Both riders have successfully undergone surgery and are set to begin the recovery process.

“The surgery went well and now he is in recovery,” BMC’s Dr. Max Testa said of Atampuma. “The plan is to stay at the hospital for one or two days and then we will organise an ambulance transfer to his place in Italy where he will start physical therapy in the next two or three days.”

Frank, meanwhile, underwent surgery in Geneva on Sunday and, depending on the recovery process, hopes to be back on the trainer within three weeks.

The incident prompted race organisers to issue a warning at the end of the stage, in the document listing all sanctions from the stage: “The use of mobile phones during the race by riders is not authorised in reference to article nine of the event and article 2.2.024 of the UCI regulations.”

Paolini suggested after the race that he had forgotten he left his phone in his pocket and was just turning it off before returning it to the team car.

2015 Tour Down Under route announced

The 17th edition of the Santos Tour Down Under will return next January with new race routes across South Australia.

Race Director Mike Turtur said the course was developed to give sprinters, climbers and all-rounders an equal chance at victory, while also showcasing the city and new places in regional South Australia.

“In an event first there will be a stage finish in the Adelaide Hills town of Paracombe, the smallest rural spot to ever host a stage.”

Race Director Mike Turtur is pleased with the balance achieved in the race stages.

“Stage 1 from Tanunda to Campbelltown will see us get off to a spectacular start with no race neutral and racing starting straight out of the township. The new finish location in Campbelltown, presents a very tough, uphill sprint which will demand perfect timing by the sprinters,” Mr Turtur said.

“There will be two loops through the Barossa before riders tackle Checker Hill in the opposite direction to usual and power towards the finish line.

“The new finish at Paracombe and the climb up Torrens Hill Road will make for a very interesting stage. We are returning to Glenelg after many years for a stage start which will be a highlight for Bupa Stage 4 as well as the Bupa Challenge Tour and on the same day a new finish location in Mount Barker.

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Got to love Paolini’s explanation. Only problem with it is fact that the power button sits on the top right of the phone, not where the home button resides.

jules

did anyone check his twitter feed?

Sean

I like Luca, he makes me look lean.

jules

he looks like a Beach Rd hubbard in that photo

Abdu

More like a chubby hipster, Instagramming his own stem with just the right touch of irony…
I’m thinking his heart’s not really in this race?

Notso Swift

Top effort from Martin and glad it didn’t end like the Vuelta.
…and most importantly he hit the podium wearing a cycling cap

Billy

There is nothing wrong with baseball caps, it helps with the globalisation of the sport.

lefthandside

Mcnuggets help with the globalisation of dinner, but I still don’t eat them ;)

marcus

Greatest. Reply. Ever.

Sean

nah the ‘bringing a crayon to a pen fight’, a few months ago beats it any day.

Michele

It was a fantastic effort by Martin. Even more so when you consider what the riders back in the yellow jersey group said post-stage.

To think the attacks were on in earnest for 1.5 hours straight from the start of the stage. And even after Martin, De Marchi and then the second group went up the road, there was no respite.

G Thomas explained that the pace was on all day – no time for nature breaks and the like.

Would love to see Martin’s SRM / Strava file. Be some interesting numbers.

Notso Swift

Yes BIG numbers
Tour Tracker had 8 riders “out the back” straight away on the first climb, I remember Kittel, Renshaw, Sieberg, Dumand, Eisel they took 3 hours to even catch the Grouppetto!

Sean

taking 3 hours to even catch the grouppetto is absolutely nuts!

wheels50

Great look Luca given the proliferation of sports betting agencies associated with the tour

jules

? he was setting a bad example for viewers at home who might be tempted to lay bets while riding in the Tour ?

Michele

The rumour I heard for why Paolini was on the phone had nothing to do with social media, nor with betting. Nothing sinister. In fact, it was quite trivial in comparison.

Just before heading off for stage 8, the peloton started to hear whispers that Menchov had been suspended for doping violations.

The UCI have stated that there will be no press conferences for announcing suspensions and that it would be up to media agencies to simply refresh the UCI webpage for updates.

So Luca was therefore just doing the right thing by all and checking to see if he was still eligible to ride or not.

Sean

Sounds very responsible of him, but it contradicts what I heard.
I heard he was streaming coverage to his phone and keeping an eye on where that Talansky guy was in the bunch, so he could avoid riding near him in the bunch.

Michele

That’s also possible.

The other rumour I heard was he got himself the new ProCycling Stats App and was simply upgrading it to the Pro Version.

Therefore he would have access to all stage results, and not just the top 10, and hence be able to see what position he finishes in each day.

Dave

I thought he was playing Pro Cycling Manager, to see if he could do a better job than Brailsford.

Michele

I don’t think you need to play PCM to determine that fact.

Forget Wiggins, I’m wondering if Sky made a bigger blue and are regretting not picking Kennaugh?

Matt Rendell said he was originally to ride Tour, but Sky felt he was a bit soft for pulling out of the Tour of Suisse with illness. Dropping him from Tour Squad certainly did give him the kick up the butt he obviously needed. His results since have been great.

Danny Pate has had an extraordinary Tour thus far. I know everyone has high hopes for Porte, but one thing always seems to be overlooked…

Porte did a great job for Froome last year, and no doubt would’ve done a great job this year for him.

Now that Porte is designated GC rider, who in the squad is going to pick up the slack and do ‘Porte’s assisting role’ for Richie??

Dave

There must be someone – remember that Froome and Porte are joint leaders, and since Porte is not your average solo hero it then logically follows that some of the other seven are domestiques ready to support him or Froome.

Michele

May be that someone was to be Xabier Zandio?

David Lopez, Danny Pate and even Kiryienka have struggled thus far – so I don’t believe it will any of them.

Eisel is for the flats.

Thomas has already done a mountain of work. I’m not sure he will be able to keep it up. Plus really, stages like tonight, and the big mountain stages to come will be too much for him.

That leaves just Mikel Nieve. I have reservations that he’ll be assistance to Porte come the high mountains.

In 2012 Wiggo had Froome by his side for the crucial stages. Froome has Porte last year.

On tonight’s final stage [and the mountain-top stages to follow], I expect to see Porte isolated before Contador, Valverde, and Nibali lose their last team mate.

That will make Porte’s job of getting onto the podium all the harder.

jules

very funny guys. but the real explanation is much simpler. he was actually using Strava to scope out upcoming KoMs, starting from the rear of the bunch then moving up by the segment end.

Dave

Could also be that he’s finally worked out what’s going wrong with his finishes – that he’s taking the distance to go from one of the Tour Tracker apps.

Frank

Whats with the edited photo of Tony Martins bike, it’s supposed to say SWorks, but this one says #WEWIN.

Dave

Not shopped. The bikes have those decals as part of a S********ed marketing campaign.

No, it was a very rude comment that didn’t add to the conversation whatsoever. I would have deleted that for that comment against any brand. If I let all comments come through like that, we’re doomed to be most other forums on other sites.

Dave

Fair call. I didn’t see the comment in question, only that one had appeared and then showed an error when I clicked to view it.

I’m sure you can understand my cynicism though, given the well-documented history of Specialized’s sharp practices towards the bike industry and those critics who give less than glowing reviews of their excessively marked up Chinese bikes.

Sean

Apologies Wade, I will restrain myself in future. I’d have removed it if our rolls were reversed and you posted it on my site. :-)

900Aero

Martins bike said S-Works on the TV coverage, I just re-watched it. This is a photoshop/edit of some kind .

A brainchild of Specialized, the #WEW1N decal on the downtube is conceived as a way to get fans involved in sharing achievements—pros’ or their own. Whenever a Specialized-sponsored rider wins in the Tour, he and his team’s bikes will have this decal the next day. It’s a simple sticker that’s placed over the S-Works logo here on Nibali’s bike

Flash

Well done TM. People don’t forget the beauty of this area, The Vosges are a great mountain area to ride on road or off road. Having spent a week there a few years back it is great to see the tour going through this area again, and up roads that average cyclists can ride up and not need a triple upfront like some other climbs require. I also think people are not giving R Porte due respect, he was the strongest up Alpe D’Huez last yr, he had to wait for Froome, so without having to sit on the front doing all the hard work, he will be much better at the back end, especially in the time trial.

Michele

Oh I respect Porte immensely. Pound-for-pound I think he’s as good as Evans was in 2011.

Two factors are interesting though; and they both contradict one another:

1. Being designated leader brings with it extra pressure. That in itself can potentially be a deterrent to one’s performance.

2. But countering that point, since Froome left the Tour, the whole Sky squad seems a lot more relaxed. I have no doubt that the team is steely determined to put in a great TdF, but the fact they no longer have the favourite, they become the hunter and not the hunted. Porte seems very relaxed considering.

I can’t see Porte winning the race, though happy to be wrong because he seems like a top bloke. A podium? It’s a real possibility. And I don’t think we should underestimate the result if he achieves it. He’s lead out to the TdF has been far from perfect.

Definitely agree with you about the Vosges.

Notso Swift

Vosges are fantactic, despite SBS trying to say otherwise Mulhouse is a bit of a hole, (just like any town built on the auto industry – does have a good museum) but the area is great and places like Colmar are ideal to base yourself for day trips including Germany and Switzerland.

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